Published: Monday, February 4, 2013 at 6:15 p.m.

Last Modified: Monday, February 4, 2013 at 6:15 p.m.

In a scene from the 1950s horror flick “The Alligator People,” a newly married husband has disappeared. His heartbroken wife has tracked him down to the bayous of south Louisiana.

Then, in a scene that would have shocked movie audiences of the time, a horrible monster staggers out to face her — a mad scientist injected the husband with a serum that turned him into half-man, half-alligator.

It's one of Nicholls State University archive staff member Emilie Pitre's favorite YouTube videos.

“To people back then, that would have been just terribly scary,” Pitre said. “But to us, the way movies are now, it's just hilarious. You can see the zipper on the monster suit.”

Pitre and the rest of the Nicholls archivists have movies on the mind at the moment. The school just opened a new exhibit, “Hollywood on the Bayou: An Exhibit of Louisiana Film History.”

The exhibit shepherds visitors from the first movie theater in New Orleans to modern titles, all through the lens of Louisiana.

“Everything that's featured here is something from Louisiana,” Pitre said. “It was either made here or parts of it was filmed here.”

The exhibit revolves around dozens of mint-condition movie posters and advertisements. They range from a 110-year-old ad that hung in the office of Thomas Edison, credited with inventing the first movie technology, to posters for movies that just left the box office.

The posters come from the collection of Ed and Susan Poole, New Orleans-based collectors and authors of several books on the Louisiana movie industry.

Over years of research and visits to auction houses and sales, the Pooles have collected thousands of movie posters, some of great value. The Nicholls exhibit only shows off a tiny part of their collection.

“A lot of people don't realize how important Louisiana has been to the movie industry,” Ed Poole said. “Before we began researching it, there wasn't anyone who was preserving that history, so we were losing it. We don't want that to happen.”

Poole said Louisiana's landscapes — swamps, bayous and plantations — have long proved a tempting target for location shoots, ranging from movies such as the 1918 “Tarzan” movie to the 1951 “Streetcar Named by Desire” to the 2012 “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”

“Louisiana was the center of the movie industry before California was,” he said. “And we're a growing market today. There are things here that you just can't reproduce in a studio.”

In addition to showcasing Louisiana's role in the film industry. The exhibit uses the posters to illustrate how movies have changed. For example, there's a poster for “The Kiss,” a 47-second movie from 1896 that shows a man kissing a woman.

When the film debuted, it caused a national moral uproar, the exhibit explains. Church leaders and other officials called for a ban on the movie. In many places, it was only available upon request, something that happened frequently.

“It was a different time,” Pitre said. “It's just unbelievable to us now that there could be such outrage about something like a kiss.”

As the content of movies became freer, technology also improved. The exhibit shows a progression from primitive costumes — like the Alligator Man — to high-tech computer-generated monsters, explosions and other special effects.

The exhibit will soon include a reel of movie trailers through the generations.

Though the exhibit was only open in the past few days, Pitre said she's already given tours to several school groups.

“It's a great field trip,” Pitre said. “We've got people coming down from New Orleans and from the local schools.”

Poole said he's optimistic about Louisiana's future in show biz. The exhibit ends with a huge display showing hundreds of posters for movies filmed or produced in Louisiana in the past few years.

Poole said new tax credits and other changes have caused a boom in movie productions in Louisiana. The state had $345 million in new production in 2011, enough to rival California.

“If we can start to find a way to create the framework that surrounds movies — places to store sets and props, research places, things like that — we're going to become a real player here,” Poole said. “I think the future of movies in Louisiana is very bright.”

Staff Writer Matthew Albright can be reached at 448-7635 or at matthew.albright@dailycomet.com.

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